In regards to commuting, It would be good if you can ask your employer from which station you will be picked up, that makes all the difference about the advice regarding suitable towns.

Just by looking at the map (check Google Maps, it is mightily useful) there are several bigger towns than Cobham (Guildford, Woking, Esher, Weybridge, Byfleet), but only Guildford is in the same branch of railtrack as Cobham, which makes all the difference when commuting.

I suggest you check South West Trains > Homepage , that is the rail company that services the area, they have a map with all the towns in their network, this should help you to select a suitable place, also check www.thetrainline.co.uk to figure out train times and frequency.

There is bus information out there, but I try to avoid them in Surrey, somebody else may be able to help.

The ideal would be for you to live in Cobham area, I don't know how expensive housing is or if it is a good area or not, just google around and see what you find.

With the websites above and websites about property prices (once you have chosen a location to live) you should have a better idea about how far £30000 will take you (I think you would be left with around £21000-22000 after taxes), which is nothing to sneeze at but you may find yourself counting the pennies very carefully, unfortunately the South East of England is quite expensive, but your salary should be about OK.

If you want to investigate about grocery prices head straight to one of the major supermarkets websites (Tesco, M&S, Sainsburys, ASDA, Waitrose, Iceland, Coop, etc), if you put there one week worht of your current shopping that should give you a fair idea about how much you will be spending.

Internet & phone is quite cheap, you should expect to pay between £10 and £25 /month (which may include cable TV and some other services), a mobile phone contract should cost you around £30/month (maybe less, head on for websites for this).

You will have to pay the hideous council tax, which is a local tax you pay to provide for local services (it is not progressive, in the sense that it is not tied to your income). This is between £1000 & £2000 depending on the property and the local authority (google for this when house hunting).

You will save money if you buy gas and electricity from the same company, roughly you will pay around £100/month for these.

Water and sewage is a monopoly, but you should not pay more that a few pounds per month (20? 30? don't know).

Keep in mind all the above are estimate put in a hurry, you can always save in some items, but at least this should offer you a panorama of waht to expect.

Good luck